Seven Swords
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| Seven Swords | |
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| Directed by | Tsui Hark |
| Produced by | Tsui Hark |
| Written by | Cheung Chi-Sing Hun Tin Naam Liang Yusheng |
| Starring | Donnie Yen Leon Lai Charlie Yeung |
| Music by | Kenji Kawai |
| Cinematography | Keung Kwok-Man |
| Distributed by | Eng Wah Cinema (SG) Weinstein Company (USA) |
| Release date(s) |  25 July 2005 |
| Running time | 153 minutes |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Seven Swords (traditional Chinese: 七劍; simplified Chinese: 七剑; pinyin: Qī jiàn) is a 2005 Hong Kong film directed by Tsui Hark and adapted from a novel by renowned Wuxia writer Liang Yusheng.
The movie was the opening film to the 2005 Venice Film Festival.
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[edit] Plot
In the mid-1600s, the Manchurians have taken over sovereignty of China and established the Qing Dynasty. While many nationalist revolts still brew within the martial artists' community, the newly set-up government immediately imposes a Martial Arts Ban, forbidding the practice of martial arts altogether in order to gain control and order. Wind Fire, a surrendered military official from the previous dynasty, sees this as an opportunity to make a fortune for himself by helping to execute the new law. Greedy, cruel, and immoral, Wind Fire ravages the North-western China, and his next goal is to attack the final frontier, Martial Village.
Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner from the previous dynasty, feels the need to put a stop to this brutality and sets out to save Bowei Fortress. He brings Wu Yuanyin and Han Zhiban from the village with him to the Heaven Mountains to seek help from Master Shadow-Glow, a hermit who is a master of swords and leads a group of disciples of great swordsmanship. Master Shadow-Glow agrees to help, and orders his four disciples to go. Together with Chu Zhaonan, Yang Yunchong, Mulong, and Xin Longzi, the "Seven Swords" is formed and their heroic journey begins.
The heroes return to Martial Village just in time to foil Wind Fire's attack. In order to buy more time for the villagers to conduct their harvest and prepare for an exodus, the heroes advance to Wind Fire's own outpost. Fu, accompanied by Han and Wu, stages a negotiation with Wind Fire while the remaining heroes cause disarray within the fort by destroying supplies. During the raid, Chu comes across Green Pearl, discovering that she is a slave from Korea, just as he was. So begins their romance. While Chu is fluent in both Chinese and Korean, Green Pearl only speaks Korean. After Chu brings her to join the refugees of Martial Village, the refugees are distrustful of her because she is unable to communicate.
As they lead the entire village to the road of a safer place, they begin to encounter mysterious confusion. Food and water are poisoned, and trails of escape are marked with signs leading the enemy to them. They soon realize that there is an undercover spy, and the Seven Swords must identify him/her before Wind Fire's army gets to them. Between this narrow gap of life and death, the situation is further complicated by the blossoms of love.
As the heroes begin to notice that it will take too long to find the spy, they decide to go to Wind Fire's military base where they engaged in a battle with him and his army.
[edit] Cast
- Donnie Yen - Chu Zhaonan
- Leon Lai - Yang Yuncong
- Liu Chia-Liang - Fu Qingzhu
- Charlie Yeung - Wu Yuanying
- Lu Yi - Han Zhibang
- Sun Honglei - Fire-Wind
- Kim So-Yeon - Green Pearl
- Duncan Chow - Mu Lang
- Tai Li-Wu - Xin Longzi
- Yu Chenhui - Master Shadow-Glow
[edit] Production
The film, the first of a planned trilogy, was approximately four hours long, but was cut to 153 minutes.
[edit] See also
- Seven Swords of Mount Heaven, a Hong Kong TV series based on the same source material.
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- Seven Swords Novel Translation English Summary translation of the "Seven Swords" (updated August 27, 2007) done by Yenchin of Wuxiasociety.org
- KFCC Review
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